I suppose it's to do with age but as my Wife says I do tend to wander off subject. Many moons ago, when I was a grease monkey, when we made parts and adapted parts to fit, I had the pleasure of working on some of Germany's products. I was faced with a Mercedes clutch job and was concerned about this wonderful engineering. Well when I came to confront the bogey I found the Merc no better built than the Ford 100/105E and Moggy 1000's which were our bread and butter. What was an eye opener was the price structure. In 1969 it was £100 for the clutch from Mercedes. Our factor had the clutch but there were two variants, so I had to make a 60mile round trip with the clutch as a pattern. I think it cost somewhere around £12 a weeks wages for me. It was said as the clutch from the factor was made in Germany it was identical to the one from the dealer. Another time I was given the job of replacing the heater? tubes around the exhaust of a VW Beetle. I was disgusted at the rust and crap quality. Quite honestly there were A55 pickups coming off Bodmin Moor that had been immersed in mud and cow muck for 12mths that had less rust. Those were the days, now if a vehicle was presented how half of those brought in for MOT were, it would fail before entering the garage. I am biased, I do not like German cars.